It’s that magical time of year again, folks! Let our research elves share some insight about parents on the hunt for books for their children. Where are they buying books? How much do discounts affect their decisions? Read on for all that and more (plus graphs! Our elves love graphs)…

We have had a busy summer and fall working on some enhancements to SalesData. Find out how we’ve updated some of our most popular reports: Bestseller Report, Title Trend Report, and Titles by Market Report.

Canadians love their books. A recent National Reading Campaign survey found that 95% of Canadians read for pleasure, and books are their preferred reading format. But with so much out there to read, how does anyone decide what to pick up next?

Often, avid readers’ holiday wishlists are filled with the winners and finalists of Canadian book awards such as Canada Reads, the Giller Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Awards. To make it easy for retailers and libraries to find and order Canadian award finalists, we’ve created catalogues for all the major awards on BNC CataList.

Thanks to everyone who made it out to the last Code Meet Print Toronto of 2013! We had three fantastic presentations from engaging entrepreneurs who made time in their busy holiday schedules to tell us about their consumer-focused initiatives.

It has been years since Apple coined the phrase “There’s an app for that.” Now, as we head into the time of year when smartphones, tablets, and other app-using devices fly off the shelves, let’s look at which apps and devices are the most popular among Canadians.

It’s our last Code Meet Print TO of the year, and we’re turning our attention to those who work up an especially good sweat in December: retailers! We also have a brand new venue for this round, the lovely Hotel Ocho.

With the growing list of ebooks being made available to libraries for patron loan, we’ve seen a lot of experimentation with different publisher payment models, from loan limitations to different up-front pricing for libraries with unlimited loan licensing. If your publishing house has opted for this second option — or even if you have the same pricing for consumer and library purchase, but you want to be clear about this to the supply chain — how do you indicate this in your ONIX record?

Last week at Books in Browsers IV, Baldur Bjarnason gave a talk titled Interactivity Is What You Do that I kept referring back to over the two days of sessions. He pointed out that interactive media isn’t what you watch, hear or read, but is “composed of the meaningful actions the user takes while interacting with your work.”
There are two affirming ideas in this statement. One is that “meaningful actions” has a wide enough scope to include all behaviour. Second is that producers of interactive works build an entire experience, not simply an object, for an audience.

BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards, and education to serve the Canadian book industry. Founded in 2002 to address systemic challenges in the industry, BookNet Canada supports publishing companies, booksellers, wholesalers, distributors, sales agents, industry associations, literary agents, media, and libraries across the country.